ABSTRACT
Considerable debate exists about why remarriage following divorce impacts academic achievement. Although myriad researchers have suggested a number of reasons for this relationship, there is uncertainty about the relative importance of each. McLanahan and Sandefur’s (1994) study contributed a great deal of knowledge about the relative effects of divorce and remarriage on educational attainment. To date, most of the research examining the effects on children of living in a stepfamily has focused on psychological rather than educational effects. Downey (1995, p. 875) notes research that has examined the effects of remarriage following divorce on children “has focused on the social-psychological consequences of life in a stephousehold … [therefore] less is known about the academic performance of children in stephouseholds.” McLanahan and Sandefur (1994) conducted a study analyzing stepfamilies from the High School and Beyond, and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data sets. They found that stepfamilies were much more likely to move than their counterparts in intact families and single-parent families.
